Protectors- Part One
by cutiepiebm
Summary: Max helps Liz, Michael/Maria want to help. Cute, sweet relationships.


Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, or anything from WB, I just want to write, okay?

Author's Note: (( )) means thought, *** is a break in scene, ~~~ is a break in time. This is my first fic, so go easy on me. 

***

Max sat up with a start in his bed. He looked around his small apartment. He had felt a jolt. Something was wrong, terribly wrong, and he didn't want to wait to find out if it was with Liz or not. He got out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans and a white tang top and headed out the door. 

He ran nervously to Liz's house. ((My god. What happened. I know something's wrong. Something's really wrong with Liz. Don't let her get hurt, please god, don't let her get hurt.))

He climbed up to the roof of Liz's apartment, and let himself in through the window. There he saw Liz, lying on the ground, blood trickling out slowly from a gash on her head. Kyle stood a few feet away from her, holding a vase in his hand. 

Max didn't think for a moment, and charged Kyle, blowing him to the ground with a forceful thrust. He was on top of him, throwing punches at him, hitting him with every ounce of strength he had. Then he stopped. Kyle was unconscious. Max walked over to Liz and took her small body. He sat down on the floor and placed it atop his own.

"Liz, Liz honey. Wake up. Liz, god, please wake up." He told her with pain in his voice.

Liz groaned a little, and shook her head. Max ripped off his top and pressed it against the gash on her head. She slowly opened her eyes, her eye-lids fluttering from the light.

"Max? Is that you? Max?" She whispered.

"Shh. It's ok. You're ok." He answered her, with tears in his eyes from relief. 

He picked her up and slowly worked his way out the window, and to his apartment. He set her on his bed and went to the sink and wet a towel. Liz sat up like a shot.

"Max? Max? Where are you? Max please!" She screamed.

He dropped the towel and ran towards her. He sat on the bed, and took her in his strong arms.

"Max, don't leave me. Please don't leave me." She cried to him.

A look of pain shot through his eyes. He asked her, "Liz, what happened? What did Kyle do to you? Tell me."

She looked up to him, with her soft chocolate-brown eyes. "Max, he hurt me. He hurt me. All I was doing was sitting in my room, reading, and he just came in and started to hit me. So I tried to get out the window and he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me onto the bed, and he started to kiss me. I told him to stop, and to get out. He didn't listen. Instead, he got up and he told me that he had had enough with me, and he wanted me to go with him, and not you. I said I wouldn't, I love Max. So he picked me up, threw me onto the floor. and then hit me with a vase in my head, and I don't know what happened next. All I remember is waking up here, and no one was here, Max. No one." 

"Liz. Oh Liz." Was all he could say. Max wrapped his arms tighter around her, and she snuggled up to him, feeling his strong body against hers.

((He's here now. I'm safe. Nothing will happen to me. Thank god for Max.)) Liz thought to herself. She started to stroke his arm, and he bent down and kissed her soft hand. She smiled and then fell asleep in his arms.

***

"Where is Liz, Michael? She was supposed to meet me here at noon for lunch, and she never showed up. I haven't seen Max either." Maria said to Michael, as she sat down next to him in the Crashdown.

He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned up next to him.

"Well, obviously we can figure out who the lucky one is in this situation. Maxwell: 1 Maria: 0. Score." 

"Michael, don't. This isn't funny. I am really worried about Liz. She's usually never late." Maria told him, after giving him a playful punch in the ribs.

"Alright. I'll walk you over there, and we can check out Liz's place. If she isn't there, we'll head to Max's." Michael said, helping Maria up.

Maria wrapped her arm around Michael's waist, and he slowly glided his arm around her shoulders, and they walked out of the Crashdown.

***

It was nearly 3:00 pm, and Liz had been resting on Max the whole time. He had sat there, stroking her hair and face, looking down at his love.

Liz started to wake up, and Max eagerly looked into her eyes. "Max? Max, thank god you're still here. Oh my god what time is it?" She looked at a clock sitting on a nearby table.

"2:47? How long have I been sleeping?" She looked up at him.

"For about 3 hours, why?" He asked her.

"I can't believe you sat here this whole time. And look at me, I'm a mess. Oh, I have to get cleaned up. I have to call Maria, I was supposed to have lunch with her. I have to-" Max placed his finger over her lips, and then took it away. He looked into her eyes, and kissed her once, lightly on the lips.

"Don't worry about any of that. You're beautiful enough to get away with all of it." He told her, with a grin on his face.

Liz smiled and took his hand. She wrapped it around her tiny waist, stroking it gently. Then she sat up. "But I really do have to get cleaned up. I can't believe you're still holding me. Look at me, I'm covered in blood."

He moved off the bed and in front of Liz, picked her up and carried her to the shower. "Here, if you think that you're not beautiful enough, you're wrong. This'll prove it." He tossed her a bar of soap, and shut the door as he walked back out into the kitchen. Max heard the shower start up, and clothes fall on the floor.

((She knows just how to turn me on. God, I love her.)) Then he heard a knock at the door. He crept up to it, slowly, and grabbed a knife. He opened the door quickly and held the knife up in front of him. Maria screamed and Michael shoved her behind him. She looked out from under his arm. 

"Max, what are you doing? Trying to kill my girl?" Michael shouted in his face.

Max lowered the knife and told him, "Sorry, no. I though that you were someone else. Maria, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." 

Maria came out from behind Michael, but took his arm and wrapped it around her, holding it. "God, Max. When will you learn that if you hold a knife in front of someone, they will be scared."

Maria took Michael's arm and led him into the apartment, and Michael sat down on the couch, letting Maria glide into him, as he cradled her, holding her protectively, lovingly.

Max sat down on the couch across from them, and threw the knife onto the table in-between the couches. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

"So do you know where Liz is? And why aren't you wearing a shirt, Max?" Maria questioned him, as Michael stroked her hair.

"Liz is here. She's in the shower. It's a long story." He answered and leaned back.

"Wait what do you mean, she's in the shower. Spill it boyfriend." Maria told him.

"I don't know if Liz will want me to. It's sort of personal." 

"Liz is our best friend. She would tell us anything. We want to know what went on." Michael contradicted him.

"Okay. Well, Liz was at her apartment, when Kyle ran in, and started to hit her. She tried to escape, but he pulled her back and started to rape her. Then he backed off, and he knocked her unconscious. I came into her apartment, after feeling something was up, and I saw Kyle. I knocked him unconscious, and took Liz back to my apartment. I don't know if Kyle is still at her apartment or not." He explained.

Maria shrieked and jumped. Michael held onto her tight, and she nestled into him.

"No, he must've left, because we just were there a few minutes ago. No one was there, and there was no mess at all. Everything was clean." Michael answered. 

"That's what I figured. He's out looking for her. But he's not going to get her. I'm involved now, since I was the one who stopped him. But you guys, stay out of this. I don't want anyone getting hurt." Max told them, but eyed Michael and sort of nodded at Maria. Michael eyed him back and nodded in understanding.

"But she's our best friend. We just can't sit by, and watch. I want to help her. She needs our help." Maria protested.

"Maria, baby. Please, I don't want to put you in any more danger than you already are by going out with me. Please, just stay out of it. For me?" Michael begged her.

Maria shifted her head and looked into Michael's eyes. She smiled and then answered, "Okay. But I don't like this at all. I think she needs my help." ((God, why does he have to be protector all the time? Sure, I like it, and I admit I need it. But once in awhile I want to do something, and he just won't let me from his grip.))

Michael kissed the top of Maria's head. "Thank you so much baby." 

TBC- Review Please J


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